Things I Didn't Hear

Seminar Experience

2009-03-11T22:42:00.004-05:00

We had a research seminar at work today. I always hope that the presenter knows how to prepare good slides, as even with my hearing aid, I'd be lucky to pick up their voice, let alone make out the words that were being said.

During a seminar a couple of weeks after activation, I was able to pick out a couple of words here and there ("response element" are the ones I remember from that one). Last month, I was able to pick out a phrase here and there, but those phrases seemed to be things I sort of expected to hear, based on the slide showing.

Today's seminar was a leap beyond that: I was picking up around 60% of what was being said, in chunks of sentences (I think I twittered ~70% earlier. I probably overestimated it in my earlier giddiness after the seminar). To make this even more astonishing to me, the speaker spent most of the time facing perpendicular to me, so I was seeing his face in profile. That meant NO SPEECH READING! I was hearing what I was hearing.

I was picking up 2, 3 or 4 sentences at a time, but then I'd lose it for awhile, only to start getting words again. I was sometimes finding myself thinking back in a "is this what I just heard?" way, causing me to lose track of what was currently being said. Other times, things just didn't really sound like words.

Both my audiologist and the speech pathologist that I've been working with for auditory rehabilitation told me the same thing at my last appointments: I'm probably actually "getting" much more than I realize, but my brain isn't fully trusting the signal that it's receiving. That seems to fit most of today's experience, but part of the time, frankly, I'm just not used to "listening"in those types of situations for very long.

I Used To Think...

2009-02-15T22:21:00.002-06:00

I used to think that walks around Lake Calhoun were peacefully quiet. No more. Even in February, the tire noise from cars on the parkway is incredibly loud.

Who Knew

2009-02-06T00:41:00.001-06:00

That steak sizzle was so loud.

A Measure of Progress

2009-01-28T23:32:00.004-06:00

Today was my three month CI evaluation. The evaluation was basically the same as the initial candidacy evaluation. There is a sound awareness test, a CNC (single syllable word) test, and two different sentence tests. Today's results were mostly a mixed bag.
Pre-op, with a hearing aid, my sound awareness results started at 40 dB at 250 Hz, and rapidly dropped to 75 dB at 4 kHz. Today, I tested between 25-30 across the entire range. These results are pretty typical (I should scan the two charts, so I can post them here).
The CNC test was the hardest most disappointing. Pre-op, I scored only 2% correct. Today, I scored only a 6% correct. Not much if any, improvement. This test is also scored by phoneme (i.e. if the word was dog, and I said bog, they score partial credit for getting the -og). Last year, I got about 10% scoring by phoneme. Today, I got 24% when scored by phonemes. It looks like I'm hearing a lot more of the sounds than I did before, but my brain is still struggling to assemble them into the words.
Finally, on the sentence tests, last year, I scored 5 and 7%. Today, I scored 20 and 34%, repectively. A bit more improvement. One thing that my audiologist pointed out to me on the sentence tests is that, while they don't score it, she saw that I did better with words at the beginning of a sentence than, in the last part of the sentence. Possibly, I'm concentrating so much on getting the first words, that by the time I figure those out, the rest of the sentence is spoken, and I've missed it.
Some other points my audiologist made today whle telling me not to get too hung up on the numbers: -Three months is very little time compared to the 30+ years of hearing loss. -A recorded voice, with no lip reading, and few contextual clues is not a good indicator of how well I communicate everyday.
While I'm not too disappointed with today's numbers (I couldn't have done much worse than I did last year), I was still kind of surprised that they weren't a bit higher. It seems I'm doing much better in the auditory rehab sessions: Even when we do open set sentence exercises (with no lip reading), I seem to do much better, missing only a few of them.

A Really Bad Week

2008-11-15T17:41:00.004-06:00

After writing the last post a week ago, I was absolutely unable to sleep last Sunday night. I finally gave up trying, and around 4:30 AM fired off another email to my audiologist for advice. Then, I showered and went in to work about 6AM. She recommended that I call to make an appointment with my surgeon, as I already had an appointment scheduled with her for the 18th. I called the surgeon's office, and they promised to call back after consulting him that afternoon. As the day went on, the noise got worse and worse. when the Dr.'s office called back, they asked me to go to the ER at the U, and said that they would call the ER with the details, and to ensure that an ENT would be there when I checked in.

After an hour and a half of waiting, I finally talked to a Doctor. He had talked to my Dr.'s office, and if I heard correctly, they think the main problem is that the nerves in my ears are being over excited by the sound. If that's the case, I'm not sure why I would be experiencing it in both ears.

Anyway, they gave me a prescription for xanax, saying that it should help calm the nerves in the ear, as well as help me sleep. That's been helping a bit. At least I'm getying some sleep.

The noise in my head is a different story. It still can get pretty bad, but the general trend seems to be slowly improving. It hasn't gone away completely, but when it's quiet, it gets a lot better. It's rarely occuring in both ears at the same time now, but seems to switch from ear to ear. While it can still get pretty loud, it doesn't seem to get quite as loud, and seems to subside a little sooner than a week ago.

It's frustrating, because it really makes it hard to pick out the voices that I need to be focusing on. Hopefully, I will learn a little more after my appointments this week, even if it's just some reassurance.

Not Loving It So Far

2008-11-09T22:51:00.002-06:00

I'm going to lump the last two weeks since activation together in one post. The second day of of this process was much like the first. Everything was mono-tone. Most sounds were just beeps or warbles in the background hum. Voices, were starting to sound a bit like voices, but they sounded distant, and echoey, like I was hearing them over a PA system in a football stadium.

The morning before my second mapping, brought a big change, though. Just as I was leaving work for the clinic, I stopped to talk to someone. During that conversation, the tone of his voice suddenly dropped. Driving over to the clinic, I was actually starting to be able to distinguish between different voices, even if I couldn't make out what they were saying.

My second mapping was basically the same as the first one. We started with the threshold and comfort levels, and though my thresholds didn't really drop, my comfort levels increased a little bit. Then we did a balancing step: they gave me three tones in a row, and I had to tell them if they were the same volume or not. f they were the same, we went on to the next set. If there were differences, they made adjustments until they were all the same. The end result was a map that gave me more volume.

Since activation, I've been trying to do 20-30 minutes or more of listening a day. This has mostly been listening to Dr. Seuss books on CD, and trying to follow along with the book. When I have the book in front of me, some of the stories, I can pick out some of the words. Most of them though, I get lost after a few pages, but that is gradually stretching out, and I can follow more before getting lost. Of course, without the book, I still can't understand the words, unless it's a portion of the book that I've started to memorize.

Real voices still sound distant, but sounds are starting to come out. Early last week, I filled up a water bottle from a pitcher, and I recognized the sound of the water filling the bottle. Zippers and footsteps make sense most of the time, and I heard the wall clock in my kitchen tick.

My third mapping last Tuesday was more of the same process, but instead of giving me additional volume, they gave me three different programs for different listening environments. I've been trying them but so far, not a lot of difference.

And now the really lousy parts.

In the last few days, I've developed some serious non-stop tinnitus or something. And by serious, I mean loud, like stick your head under the car hood and blow the horn loud. Pretty much nonstop, It subsides a little occasionally, but usually comes roaring back. Thursday night, it pretty much kept me from being able to sleep, and much of the time, it's know loud enough that it seems to drown out most of the sounds I should be picking up with the CI. The sounds have been everything from similar to a car horn, to something like power lines summing in the wind, or someone running a finger around the rim of a glass goblet, I've also been hearing what seems like 4 or 5 different tones at the same time. Something I don't understand about this is that it seems to go form the implanted ear to the other ear, and sometimes even seems to be in the center of my head.

One other thing that I've heard, usually right when I first wake up, before the other sounds overwhelm it is what sounds like static or crackling in the implanted ear. What scares me about that is wondering if there might be something wrong with the implant itself.

I gave up wearing the processor yesterday afternoon, hoping that maybe reducing the stimulation might let it subside. It has a little bit, to levels that might be mid-term tolerable.

I left a message for my audiologist saturday telling her about this, and asking her if I might need to see the surgeon, or her before the next mapping appointment, so hopefully she'll get back to me quickly. If I don't hear from her, I do have an appointment for an auditory rehabilitation evaluation on Wednesday morning at the clinic, so I can let the therapist know then as well. I also have my fourth mapping on the 18th, but hopefully I can get some kind of information before then.

Until then, I'm not really loving this experience so far. They certainly warn you that this is not easy, but the tinnitus is not something I was expecting, and making it even more difficult than I had imagined. As I mentioned before, you read the stories of enough other people that make such rapid, if not immediate progress, it gets frustrating, especially when things you don't understand are occurring.

Activation

2008-11-09T14:49:00.006-06:00

October 28 was activation day for my cochlear implant. What can I say, it was a pretty underwhelming event. Not that I really expected otherwise, but you read enough stories of people that adapt so quickly, you can't help but hope you're going to be one of them. We got to the clinic at the University of Minnesota a bit early, so we had a short wait. When my audiologist was finally ready,we went back to her office for activation.

The first step was to plug the processor into her computer, and test the strength of the head piece magnet on my head. The default magnet was a bit too weak to hold the coil in place. My audiologist didn't have a stronger magnet matching the color of my head piece, so she promised to order one, but gave me a brown magnet to use in the meantime. After putting the processor on my ear, and positioning the head piece, she ran a diagnostic on all of the electrodes in the implant. All 22 electrodes passed.

The next step was to establish my threshold and comfort levels. We went through each electrode one at a time. Starting with very soft volumes, and gradually increasing the volume, I had to tell her when I heard the tone. After establishing the threshold for each electrode, we went back and for each one, she increased the volume, and I had to tell her when the volume was loud, but comfortable. After both those steps, she showed me the graph, and I had a pretty narrow dynamic range: Fairly high thresholds, and low comfort levels, especially at the higher frequencies.

Finally, the big moment came, and after unplugging me from the computer, she turned me on to the outside world. At first, it didn't seem like I was hearing anything more than static. After a few moments, I was finally able to discern my audiologists "voice." Not because I recognized anything as speech, but because I realized that i was hearing beeps that corresponded with her speaking. I also couldn't really pick out any sounds from the background hum that I was hearing, and everything was more or less a monotone sound.

We tried some speech introductions, where she made some simple speech sounds: sh, aaa, eee, ooo, while pointing at them, and with me watching her lips. Then we tried it with her shielding her mouth, and I had to point at the sound I heard on a paper. Didn't get a single one. Next we did the same thing with some simple two syllable words: airplane, toothbrush, baseball, etc. I think I got one right.

Finally, we went through all of the items in the suitcase from Cochlear.

There were five boxes inside. One for the documents, one for the two processors, one for the batteries and battery charger, one for accessories, and one for the dry and store. There was also a carrying case for the processors, and a keychain battery case.

The accessories include two personal audio cables that allow me to plug things like computers, iPods, etc. directly into the processor. One is for devices that plug into an outlet, and the other for those that are battery powered. There is also a lapel microphone that is supposed to help in noisy environments.

After some discussion of what I could expect over the next couple of days before my next appointment, we were on our way.

The campus is so noisy, especially around Washington Ave., with all of the trucks and buses, I expected to be overwhelmed by sound, but it still didn't seem like I was hearing anything above that constant hum I was hearing. Over the next day or so, I had the same experience with running water in my kitchen sink and the sinks in the lab at work. At first I thought maybe there were frequencies that were canceling each other out, but I later was told that it is a result of the compression feature of the processor. If a sound gets too loud, the processor will actually compress it to prevent the signal from overwhelming me.

By later in the afternoon, there was only one sound that I started to pick out of the background: I could "hear" the blinkers in my car. I put that in quotes because it wasn't really what you would call a sound. What I was detecting was more of a warble in that background hum. Speech was still not much more than the beeps I initially heard, though the beeps did seem to start stretching out more, so that the pattern and cadence started to be more recognizable as speech.

And that was pretty much my first day of "hearing."

Mnspeak Happy Hour @ Azia

2008-10-26T22:23:00.005-05:00

I must come across as an idiot, because I've been saying it wrong for years:

I've never understood soup.
CJ can be the field trip guide.

Max without a hat. Is that one of the signs of the apocalypse?

It's a coping mechanism, but I'm surprised it hasn't gotten me into more trouble.

Two Weeks Post-Surgery

2008-10-12T12:04:00.000-05:00

Recovery from surgery is going well. I ended up taking the whole week off form work. I had thought I would try and go back the Thursday after. I probably could have, but Wednesday, I made trip to the store with my dad, and even that short trip pretty much wore me out, so I decided to take a couple more days. Even with the full week off, the first couple of days back to work were pretty tiring. Here are a few more impressions and thoughts at two weeks post surgery:

-Apparently, I spent a lot of time in recovery. Typically, it’s one hour in recovery. Turns out I spent 3 hours, as they tried to get the pain under control. Luckily, I don’t remember much of that, and since then the pain has been minimal.

-The loss of the residual hearing in my right eat (expected) is both better and worse than anticipated. It’s a very different feeling, receiving no sound from that ear anymore. So far, however, it’s revealing how little difference it making when it comes to understanding speech.

-The swelling has largely gone down, and I think I’ve figured out where the implant is positioned. I haven’t tried on my bike helmet, as the incision and the ear are still a bit sensitive to touch, so I don’t know how it will interact with the helmet.

-The implanted ear feels stuffed, or full of cotton, some of the time (again, expected). At first it was all the time. Now, it just feels that way after I’ve been up and moving around for awhile.

-The tinnitus I have in that ear seems to have actually decreased right now. A lot of people report a big increase after implantation.

-Taste is still off a bit on the right side. However, it seems more of a “burnt tongue” thing than anything. It doesn’t really seem affect how things actually taste, but taste doesn’t “linger.”

-My neck is still stiff and sore, mostly because I’m still sleeping entirely on my left side. The implant side is still too tender to let me sleep on my right side.

I go back to see the surgeon in about one week for the post-op exam. That should be a really short visit, since the incision seems to have healed well. Hopefully, he’ll also clear me to start biking again. I’ve been really bummed to have missed some really nice October biking weather this last week or so. Activation is in two weeks on the 28^th.

Surgery Update

2008-10-01T18:40:00.002-05:00

Monday was the big day. Surgery was scheduled for 7:30 AM. We got to the hospital at 5:20, and was checked in by 5:30. About 5:45, the nurse took me back to begin surgery prep. Gown, anti-embolism boots, vital stats, more medical history, and then mostly waiting. About 6:15 Dr. Levine, my surgeon stopped by for a quick review and to mark me up for surgery:

(update: The N stands for "Nucleus," the trademark name of my implant. I had a choice of which device to have implanted.)

Next up the anesthesiologist and her resident stopped by to set up the IV. Big time fail for the resident. His first attempt in my left hand, he missed completely, resulting in a big balloon of IV fluid building up under the skin. His second attempt on the right hand was better, but even that, after they wheeled me in to the operating room, they re-did the IV a third time in my right arm.

After wheeling me into the OR, they strapped me down to the table, and within a couple of minutes I was out, and the next thing I now, I’m waking up in the recovery room. The first thoughts I remember waking were the Cowboy Junkies “Darkling Days” and their cover of “Sweet Jane.” Other than that mostly, I just remember the nurse saying that they had finished at 10:30, and asking every few minutes for me to rate the pain, and her giving me more painkillers by IV.

Being moved from recovery to my room made me a bit nauseous, so they gave me something for that. Other than that, the pain was surprisingly bearable: mostly in my jaw (the surgeon’s resident said they had to cut a little bit of muscle), and my neck (from being stretched to one side for three hours).

I think I’ve only had three or four percocet for the pain. The rest has been plain Tylenol. Just as well, since the percocet gives me a rash. They held me over night at the hospital, which I spent mostly sleeping and watching the fall out from the failed wall street vote in the House of Representatives.

The next morning, the resident removed the bandage, showed off the incision to a group of medical students, and cleared me for discharge. No lifting over 15 pounds, and no strenuous activity (including biking) for two weeks. My post –op exam is scheduled for Oct. 21.

The incision is probably not even going to be visible after it heals. The made it right in the crease behind the ear:

I think I’m going to take at least one more day off,and maybe try to go in for at least awhile on Friday.

Surgery And Home

2008-09-30T20:51:00.003-05:00

Just a quick post to say that the surgery appears to have gone well yesterday, and I came home from the hospital this morning. Feeling pretty good, just some soreness behind the ear, and neck.

Only 4 weeks to the next big day.

Minneapolis Bike Tour

2008-09-14T15:49:00.005-05:00

This morning I rode in the 2nd Minneapolis Bike Tour, doing the 37 mile route (plus 14 miles round trip to and from the Parade grounds) that covers most of the Grand Rounds. The weather was a little cooler than last weeks St. Paul Classic, but at least the rain held off until I got home. The crowd at the start seemed to be a little smaller than last year, but once I got started (about 8:30), it seemed about the same:

There was an early morning regatta underway on Lake Harriet when I got there:

Part of the route heads north on West River Parkway from Minnehaha Falls. Because of the collapse of the 35W bridge, last year, we had to cross over at Franklin Ave, and proceed to St. Anthony Falls on East River Parkway. This year, with the bridge almost finished, they opened West River Parkway for the riders. I had forgotten how much fun that climb from the river flats can be.

I wasn't too sure last year about the design of the bridge, but seeing it finished, it does look nice. I'm especially anxious to see it at night with the LED lights on. Somebody must have been very busy on West River Parkway this week, because last Sunday, I crossed over the 10th Ave bridge to show a friend the 35W work, and the parkway had a pretty good coat of mud on it. As you can see, it was pretty clear this morning.

I was surprised that there are still a lot of twisted pieces of the old bridge still on the flats. I'm guessing that with work on the ground continuing, that the parkway will close again for some time.

One thing I really disliked this year was the leg in NE Minneapolis. From Boom Island, they routed us counter traffic north on Marshall St. This wouldn't have been too bad, except that they didn't close that side of the road to parking (or if they had, they didn't enforce it and tow people). That meant that there were a lot of places where we had to move out into the lane into potentially oncoming vehicles to get around parked cars. Throw in groups riding two or three abreast, and I was really glad when we finally reached St. Anthony Parkway.

And finally, something that I hadn't noticed before when we crossed the Stone Arch Bridge is that I can't here the St Anthony Falls from there. That may be an early stop in November.

Activation

2008-09-13T00:15:00.003-05:00

Today, I received the list of appointments for the first six months. Activation, when they'll finally give me the external processors, and start turning on the electrodes is scheduled for Oct. 28.

There will be two more "Mapping" appointments in the first 7 days, then, 5 more at various longer intervals through April. My audiologist said that I will also probably get a referral for aural rehabilitation ( hearing therapy), but those won't be scheduled until after activation. I assume that is because we won't really know what my rehab needs will be until then.

I think I've kept a pretty level head through this whole process, but for some reason, getting this list of appointments sent me into a bit of a freak out mode this morning. Luckily, things have been going pretty well in the lab this week. That took a little of the edge off.

18 Days

2008-09-11T19:31:00.002-05:00

Only 18 days until the surgery. Everything seems to be set. All I need to do now is avoid getting sick so we don't have to cancel and reschedule. I'm registered to ride in the Headwaters 100 the 27th. We haven't had the greatest luck with the weather for that: more often than not, it's been cold, windy, and if not raining, at least very damp.

I turned in the selection form earlier this week. I decided to go with the Cochlear Nucleus Freedom, with silver behind the ear processors. My audiologist emailed back to confirm that they got the information. She also told me that she had submitted the follow-up appointments for scheduling and that she would send the list as soon as those were confirmed. That means that hopefully, I should know my activation date in the next few days.

Finally

2008-08-06T22:00:00.000-05:00

The handyman showed up just before I left for work this morning. When I got home after work, this is what I found:

There's some touch up priming I need to do, and I probably should have told him to not bother putting the trim back up on the inside (I was planning to replace it anyway), and I need to decide on a color to paint the door itself.

Not too much guidance from the HOA on that front. This is what one of the board members told me last year:

You are empowered to change your door. The only restriction on the front door is that it must closely match the other doors in the complex. It also must have a storm door which is something that xxxx has yet to deal with.

All of the original doors were plain wood slabs, stained a dark walnut color (you can see my original down below). However, xxxx has his painted a color that more closely matches the siding of the buildings, and still hasn't installed a storm door, and I've heard nothing about any trouble. I can't remember if I've seen any other doors that have been replaced or not. One option would be to just go ahead and paint it what I want, and what looks good, and if the HOA complains, just paint it again.

8 weeks

2008-08-06T21:53:00.003-05:00

"Only" 8 weeks until surgery. There's only two reasons why I don't which it was next week. First, I still haven't made a final decision on which device to go with. I am definitely leaning strongly towards one, but I'm still waiting for answers to a couple of questions before I think I'll be ready to decide. The second, is that it means the end of summer.

I'm still not feeling much anxiety about the surgery itself. I think that will be the easy part. I have much more anxiety about the activation and the rehab after that: will it actually work for me? How hard is the rehab going to be? What is every thing going to sound like?

I also got a letter from the clinic yesterday, announcing a CI picnic for recipients, candidates. It had interesting timing, being the day before my scheduled surgery. That will make for a busy weekend. The Headwaters 100 in Park Rapids is that Saturday. Normally, I drive in to Fargo Saturday night, but this year, since I have to be at the hospital at 5:30 AM Monday morning, I was planning to drive home after we finish (Not that a four hour ride is going to be fun after biking 100 miles). I guess the picnic guarantees that plan.

September 29

2008-07-16T19:24:00.003-05:00

I finally have a date set for surgery. The surgeon's office emailed me this morning saying that they finally had the confirmation form the insurance company. The earliest spot they had was September 25. I was hoping to do the Headwaters 100 bike tour on the 27th, and I'm guessing I wouldn't feel like doing that two days after surgery, so I called the office to see when the NEXT available spot was. Turned out I would only have to wait until the 29th, so I took that. The primary disadvantage of the 29th is that it is a Monday, meaning all of my recovery will be during the work week. Most people seem to be ready to go back to work after three or 4 days. The 25th would have given me half of that time over the weekend. At least I'll pick up a couple more days of leave between now and then.

The surgery is scheduled for 7:30AM on the 29th. That means I have to check in by 5:30 AM. At least I don't have to be alert for most of that day.

Between now and then I still have a bit to do. I have to have a pre-op physical the week before, and two weeks before surgery, I have to give them a decision on which device I want implanted.

Nothing New

2008-07-15T01:07:00.003-05:00

I called the clinic this morning, since I hadn't gotten a response to the email I sent last week after I was told I didn't need prior-authorization (One frustrating thing is they can be extremely slow in responding at times). Like I thought last week, they want more than just a phone call to our HR benies coordinator we schedule (they don't want either of us to get stuck with an unpaid bill). So, their insurance department is going to contact the insurance company to confirm that we are clear to proceed. Hopefully, that shouldn't take too long.

Two weeks ago, they told me the earliest openings in the surgery schedule were the second half of August. Presumably, that has shifted as time has gone by. Even if it hasn't, at this point, I think I would prefer to hold off until after Labor Day. I'd hate to miss out that last weekend of summer because I was recovering from surgery.

It's a Door

2008-07-14T20:07:00.001-05:00

THIS:

Will be replaced with this:

I still have to paint it, and I am stuck with brown (plus required to have a storm door) due to HOA rules, but I think it will still look a lot better.

Update: It looks like doing the storm door is going to be a bit of a pain as well. the brick mold opening is 33 3/4", searching on-line, it looks like a 34" door will work. However, there are very few options in 34" (especially in the brown/bronze color I will likely need). 32" doors have more options, but I don't know if I could get one to fit. Otherwise, I'll have to get a custom sized door, and that is going to cost me.

Risks

2008-07-13T19:09:00.003-05:00

These aren't the things that worry me most.

Probable lose of any residual hearing in implanted ear.

Anesthesia: rarely, death. Possible loss of teeth or laceration of phahynx do to trauma from endotracheal tube insertion

Possible injury to facial nerve, resulting in paralysis of the face on implanted side.

Possible injury to the taste nerve, resulting in loss or change of taste.

Possible balance problems, vertigo, dizziness.

Meningitis.

Longer term:

Device failure requiring revision.

Ossification in cochlea or auditory nerve.

Not Good News

2008-07-10T23:37:00.002-05:00

If this is a common view, it would explain SO much.

One Step Closer

2008-07-08T14:59:00.007-05:00

I got this email today from HR (I had asked them if they knew who I could contact directly a the insurance carrier to check on the status of the request, since it didn't really go through the normal channels):

(insurance company) told me that Cochlear Implants do not require prior authorizations. (insurance company) has kept your forms on file should anything change with the claim but you are ok to schedule and receive services at the in-network level.

I'm guessing that the clinic will want some kind of written confirmation that this is actually the case, since it strikes me as unusual that this wouldn't require prior authorization. I'm going to contact the surgeon's office to let them know about this, and to find out if they need anything else.

I would have thought that the insurance company could have told me this four weeks ago.

Update:

Not really much to add tonight. I sent an email to the surgeon's office, letting them know about this. Tomorrow, I'm going to stop by HR to see if they have a copy of the new plan/benefits summary, because I'm still really surprised that they don't require prior authorization for this. (Maybe this is related to the fact that I already had an approval from our previous carrier)

I mentioned last week, they said the earliest openings for surgery are the last half of August. Aa anxious as I am to do this, at this point I wonder if it might be better to wait until after Labor Day. I'd hate to lose out that last summer weekend for sailing, water skiing, swimming, etc. because I've got a healing surgical incision. Of course, it might not really be my call.

What Would You Miss?

2008-07-07T23:10:00.003-05:00

I asked a similar question over at mnspeak, about what were people's favorite sounds in the Twin Cities, and got some interesting responses, including a maybe not so surprising number of nature sounds in the city. One that caught my eye: Union depot on Sibley Street, you can apparently hear the building's furnace through some grating.

Here, I'm wondering what people would miss the most if, one day, they were to suddenly lose their hearing?

Why these questions? I started a list of things I hope to be able to hear or experience after I get hooked up. I don't plan to show this to anyone or post it before I at least have a date set for the surgery, maybe even activation. (This is in a large part due to an effort on my part to temper my expectations).

As I've been putting this list together, I'm finding it's a bit weighted to certain types of sounds, so, I've started looking around to see what else I've been missing that I might want to add to my list.

I know that there's probably a lot of things I never even thought about. For example, It was only in February, when I was using a loaner hearing aid in preparation for the audiology evaluation, that I discovered that the scanners at the grocery store beep when an item is scanned. It took a couple of trips to the store before I figured that one out.

So again, what would you miss most if you woke up one day and discovered you had lost your hearing?

Pink Is Not An Option

2008-07-02T17:54:00.003-05:00

Met with the audiologist today about the devices. Turns out that I was wrong about the color options. The basic options for the head coils and processors are: beige (like my current HA, blarrgh), silver/grey, black, and brown. The real color "options" are in the side and face plates. The head coil for one manufacturer is a solid disk, so they have colored covers you can get for that too. The other head coil looks a little like a spoked wheel, so you're pretty much stuck with one color, although, someone handy with a sewing machine might be able to fashion some kind of cover.

So, basically, the real color options is in the trim. The plus of that though, is that you can change those plates depending on your mood. So, if you're testifying before congress or attending a funeral, you can stick with the basic color. If, afterwards you find yourself at a trip jam concert, you can slap on the psychaldelic swirl trim, and you're good to go.

Both BTE processors felt fine, but one was a little less noticeable, probably because the "T-mic" (which positions the microphone near the bowl of the ear) made the other processor a little more snug.

We went over the rest of my questions about the two devices. I've probably flipped back to my original preference, but I still have my doubts. I like the looks of this processor a bit better (it's also the one that was more comfortable). And the controls are buttons, rather than a small dial and a tiny little switch lever.

The biggest concern is, it uses only a single output for all of it's electrodes. That means that only one electrode can be fired at a time. The other one gives each electrode its own output channel, meaning that multiple electrodes can be fired at once. Theoretically, that could allow for sensing a greater number of spectral frequencies. In practice, that isn't really happening right now, as a bigger factor is how many cochlear cells are being stimulated by the electrodes.

The other piece of information I got was related to the surgery schedule. I'm still waiting on the insurance company, but while we were talking, I mentioned the difficulty in trying to plan things more than a couple of weeks ahead. The audiologist went and checked with the surgeon's secretary to see what the schedule looked like. When she got back, she said that if I were to get the approval in the next week, the earliest they could schedule me would be mid August. That means that I can make plans at least that far ahead (meaning, I can go ahead and register for the ND MS150 ride, which is at the end of July).

If there's no word from the insurance company by early next week, I guess I'm going to contact them to find out where things stand.

I Need to Get Invited to More Parties Like This

2008-06-30T23:55:00.002-05:00

The Waiting

2008-06-30T22:17:00.003-05:00

The waiting is the hardest part

Every day you see one more card

You take it on faith, you take it to the heart

The waiting is the hardest part

Probably not what Tom Petty had in mind, but the fourth week of waiting to hear from the new insurance carrier is starting to get on my nerves a bit. It's almost impossible to make any plans more than a couple weeks ahead, not knowing how quickly I might get scheduled once we finally do hear back from the insurance company.

I do have an appointment with the audiologist this week to discuss the two systems. The choice of which system I have implanted is mine, and right now, I'd have a hard time choosing. Each system has features that I like that aren't available on other. What would be really nice would be a mash-up of the two systems.

Probably the biggest thing about the appointment this week though, is it will give me a chance to try on each of the processors, and find out how they feel, how heavy they are, what color options are available, fiddle around with the controls, things like that.

Home Improvement Blues

2008-06-19T20:59:00.003-05:00

A certain blue home improvement store can go suck it. I've been in the market for a new front door. Since I've finally lined up someone to install it, I went back up to the store to start the process of ordering.

When I went shopping last fall, the sales person said that for $35, they could send someone out for a detail measurement. When I went back on saturday, a second sales person said the same thing. Each time it was clear that I was either going to install it myself, or use my own person, and not use their install services, other than the detail measuring. Since I wanted to make sure I was ordering the right size, I paid the fee, and on Monday, their person called and made an appointment for Tuesday over lunch.

Tuesday comes, and the guy shows up, no problems so far.

Tonight, I go up to place the final order. Surprise, surprise, the sales person tells me that they can't release or use the measurements if I'm doing it myself or not using their contractor. I dealt with three people there tonight, none of them able to explain why they failed to tell me three different times that this would be a problem, other than "It's against our policy to release the measurements." They did say "It's a standard door."

At least they did give me my money back. Except, as I was about to go with the manager to the check out for my refund, they asked if I wanted to go ahead and order the door. My jaw about hit the floor. How am I going to do that, if you won't give me the measurements? I'm just supposed to GUESS at what the "standard door" numbers are? I told them. "No. You guys just lost a sale and my future business for a long time."

I stopped at the orange place on my way home. Asked the guy there if they can do measurements as a stand alone package. He said that for $30, they'll send someone for measuring, and once they have the measurements, they have no problem giving me the numbers. He gave me the number for their install co-ordinator, we ran an estimate based on some rough numbers I already have, and I made the $30 payment.

I guess we'll see if the sales people at this place know their store policy any better.

What I don't get, is why the problem giving me the measurements? I could understand if they had done it as part of a free estimate, but I did pay them for the service.

At any rate, it will be a long time before I go back to the first store.

Update:

I ordered the door without much problem Friday night at the orange store. The sales guy I dealt with this time did draw up a quote for the install without me asking, but when I said I had other arrangements already, he didn't even blink an eye, and deleted it.

(it came out much closer to the quote I already have than I expected. It would be tempting to just go with them, but I think it will be helpful to have a connection to an independent guy for some of the other projects I have on my list that I might not want to take on myself)

Minneapolis' Finest

2008-06-12T22:09:00.002-05:00

I hate having to interact with cops on the job:

A couple of weeks ago, on one of the first nice Sunday afternoons this spring, I went for a quick 35 mile ride out to Hopkins on the Cedar-Lake trail, and back on the midtown . Somewhere behind Target Center, I'm waiting at a red light, and a Minneapolis Police car that I had seen a few blocks back, pulls up along side me, rolls down his window, and says something to me. I wonder if he didn't like the (legal) left turn I had made a couple of blocks back.

He's at least 6 feet away, we're out doors with some breeze, and he's sitting in his car, I have to bend down to try and get a better look at his face, even though there's almost no chance I'm going to be abel to get what he says.

"What?"

"Do you....something," he repeats, pointing at my bike.

Now, I'm guessing there's something broken on the back of my bike, so I take a quick look down, then look back up.

"What?"

He repeats himself, and holds his hands up in the shape of a card, so I start guessing he's asking if I have a license. Well, ever since that car hit me, I always carry ID and my insurance cards with me, so I start nodding my head, then he points at my bike again.

Now I'm just getting confused, thinking to myself that Minneapolis doesn't license bikes anymore, so I start shaking my head.

Finally , I point at my ear and say:

"I can't hear you."

He looks at me for a moment, then starts rolling the window back up, and speeds away.

I still haven't figured out the point of that interaction. I know he didn't see me make any illegal maneuvers on the bike. It does look like I was wrong, and Minneapolis does technically still have the licensing ordinance on the books, but it looks unenforceable, as the state law that allows it (and that set up the registration that Minneapolis "uses") was repealed in 2005. So even if I wanted to license my bike, there is no way to do that.

This kind of interaction with almost any cop always sets me on edge. The Minneapolis Police don't have a particularly good reputation when it comes to dealing with people with disabilities, so I'm just relieved that this didn't escalate to him jumping out of the car screaming, or worse.

Laugh, Groan, or Cry?

2008-06-06T19:45:00.003-05:00

I just figured something like this would happen, and I'm not sure whether to laugh, groan, or cry. I had contacted the implant clinic last week to inform them of the upcoming insurance change at work, and they finally got back this morning with this update: My insurance authorization for the surgery was received yesterday. This really surprised me, as they (and almost everyone else) had warned me it would likely take a minimum of 4 weeks to get a response.

Unfortunately, they can't get me on the schedule before July 1, when my insurance changes. That means the request will have to be resubmitted to the new insurance carrier.

What was still unclear was whether I could submit the request to the new carrier before July 1, or if I would have to wait. Before leaving work today, the benefits coordinator in HR emailed me with a form that I need to fill out. Once I submit that with the current approval, she will be working directly with the carrier to push this through their system.

Right now, I have a request in to the clinic to have them fax me a copy of the approval.

We'll see how quickly the new company processes this, but I'm hopeful: I would think that they would want to make a good first impression with us. Although I don't know much about this stuff, it seems that the fact that they would like a copy of the approval would indicate they may largely accept the other company's decision.

At the very least, I would guess I won't face too much hassle getting it approved again.

I guess that means I need to contact the audiologist again to find out how much time before the surgery I have to make a final decision on which device I want. Before I do that, I want to try wearing each processor, if possible, and find out what options (colors, processor type, accessories, etc.) are available for each one.

WCCO Meterorology

2008-06-01T00:31:00.002-05:00

My parents were visiting last weekend, so we had WCCO on during the wave of storms. I learned some "new" meteorology from WCCO.

I knew that it was only a funnel cloud until it touched ground, and only then does it become a tornado. What I didn't know was that if it then goes back up, so it is no longer on the ground, it then becomes a "Can't believe it cloud."

Insurance Mess

2008-05-29T18:07:00.003-05:00

Not even 24 hours and already I'm looking at a potentially complicated insurance mess. We got a memo this afternoon at work announcing that the company will be switching insurance providers beginning July 1. Most likely, that means that the clinic will have to submit the authorization request for the operation to the new carrier. What I'm still trying to find out is if they can submit the request to the new carrier before the switch over, or if I'll have to wait until July 1 to begin the request.

Based on what I've been told in the clinic's information, it normally takes about 4 weeks for an insurance company to respond to the request. Based on that, I was expecting that surgery would probably be scheduled the second week of July. Right now, I don't know when to expect it.

The Green Light

2008-05-28T18:11:00.010-05:00

This is pretty exciting (for me, at least): I spent this afternoon at the U of M Medical Center for several appointments: A CT scan, a meeting with the surgeon, and an appointment with a health psychologist. As it stands right now, I have been approved to receive a cochlear implant. It will probably be 2-4 weeks before I have a surgery date set, as we need to wait for the prior authorization from my insurance company.

The day was mostly pretty boring. The appointment for the CT was at 12:20, I checked in just after 12, and the technician came to get me within five minutes. I was done with the whole CT by 12:20. My appointment with the surgeon wasn't until 1:30, meaning I had and hour to kill, so I picked a chair in the lobby and read for a while before heading up to the ENT clinic.

About 1:20, the nurse called me in, and took some more medical history. Then another wait in the exam room for 30 minutes for the surgeon. The surgeon finally came in, said he had examined my CT scan, and that there were no problems. Then, he asked "Which ear are we doing?" his next question was "Which device are we going to implant?" He spent another 10 minutes or so discussing risks of the operation and answering any of my questions, the nurse came back and we went through the pre-op packet, and I was on my way to the next appointment, with only 40 minutes to wait.

I had no idea what to expect with the psychology evaluation. This one lasted about an hour, and we discussed my hearing loss, the risks of the surgery, and what kind of support I have for the rehabilitation. The last part of the evaluation was pretty much just a depression screening. After that, he told me I was cleared to proceed, and asked me if I knew when the surgery was scheduled, which I don't yet.

The current plan is to implant my right ear, and my next step is to decide which manufacturer to go with for the implant.

Tasty

2008-05-11T23:24:00.003-05:00

I had another one of those Saturday morning PBS cooking shows on this weekend (yeah, I know, but I don't have cable in my "office," and the other options are bad japanese card game based cartoons). On this show, they were preparing Indian recipes, and according to the captions, one of the ingredients you are supposed to add is phlegm.

I'm not sure I want to eat Indian food again until I figure out what exactly they were adding.

Not Much I Can Add To This

2008-05-10T10:19:00.000-05:00

A foot? Maybe mb needs to spend more time surfing the web.

Good To Know

2008-05-09T21:40:00.003-05:00

Not so Mity 8

2008-05-09T20:37:00.005-05:00

I took a long route home from work today, and hit a rough patch. I didn't hear the cyclo-computer fall out of the mount. I did notice it missing and doubled back about 25-50 yards, but by that time, it had been run over by a car.

Because I Like My Oatmeal Cookies Straight

2008-05-05T22:28:00.003-05:00

Does it really count to be called a raisin nazi by a guy with a purple mohawk, whose favorite song is "The Rainbow Connection"?

Mangled Closed Captions

2008-05-03T18:40:00.004-05:00

You can probably guess that I rely on closed captions when I watch TV. For the most part, the quality is pretty good. Occasionally, however, they get mangled by the captioner. Sometimes what I get is amusing, like last summer when WCCO's Jason DeRusha covered the iPhone release: the captions repeatedly told me that Apple's new product was the eye phone. Or the time during an anchor toss, it said that we were going to a report from Jennifer DeRusha.

Other times, the goofs are confusing: last week, the captions during a WCCO report kept referring to a University of Minneapolis.

But sometimes, they just make you say "What the hell?" Take this morning: I happened to have the PBS show "America's Test Kitchen" on while reading the comics and RSS feeds. They were doing a review of hot cocoa mixes, and the captions indicated that some of the mixes included powdered water. I haven't seen powdered water on the shelves at REI yet, but I would think that would be pretty useful for a back country hiking trip.

March Baconalia Reruns

2008-05-01T23:55:00.004-05:00

Some reruns you may have already seen over on mnspeak. Right now, I'm just trying to figure out the best way to upload some of these scans and playing around with the posting functions on blogger.

img042.jpg, originally uploaded by mnblrmkr.

Audiogram

2008-05-01T22:18:00.003-05:00

Unfortunately, She also wanted $.

2008-04-25T21:25:00.004-05:00